Remus' Furry Little Problem
by Isobel Hatchett
Summary: The Marauders are on their way to finding out where Remus disappears to every month. Please don't forget to leave a comment or like or whatever saying whether you liked it or not :)
1. A visit to the hospital

James Potter strode confidently into the library of Hogwarts, ignoring all the stunned faces around him. Indeed, James had managed to avoid this god-forsaken place for the three years that he had been at the school. He looked around, searching for his friend's face. Instead, his eyes caught the gleam of familiar red hair, and James approached the girl bent over her book

"Evans!" He called quietly. The girl lifted her eyes to James, sighed, then resumed reading

"Really James, I thought this was the one place I was safe from you."

"I'm not here about our fight, I'm looking for Remus."

"Isn't he supposed to be visiting his mum?"

"Well yeah but he should be back already."

"I don't know, James." Lily answered, exasperated. There was a short silence before James asked :

"What are you reading?"

"Why do you care?" She responded, but there was no reply, so she continued " it's about magical beasts... like werewolves and such."

"Is it interesting?

Lily sighed before answering. "Yes, very, but I don't expect you to read it, so I'd like you to leave please."

Before James could respond, he heard someone call his name loudly, and turned to see Peter and Sirius running towards him, causing quite a flourish of angry looks thrown at them. As the drew near, the panic in their eyes became obvious.

"What's the matter?" James asked immediately

"It's... Remus..." Peter reported, hands on his knees and panting heavily.

"He's in the hospital wing." continued Sirius " Pete saw Madam Pomfrey almost carrying him, it seems really bad."

Sirius had hardly finished his sentence as both James and Lily stood so violently that their chairs clattered against the floor, causing more annoyed hisses, but the group were already hurrying away. It took them only a few minutes to reach the double doors that lead toto the hospital wing, which they burst into. Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse, emerged from behind a set of white curtains and scuttled towards them.

"You can't see him." She announced, but James had seen the blood on her fingers and gown.

"Is that Remus's ?" He blemished.

"Uh... well yes."

"What happened?" Sirius demanded.

"Nothing to worry about, he'll be - ""

"What happened?" Lily repeated, shaking all over.

"He tripped and fell - uh - quite a bit into a ditch full of thorns among other things, but he'll be fine by tomorrow ."

The group relaxed a bit.

"Can't we see him?" Peter asked.

"No, he's sleeping for now, you'll see him tomorrow." She answered in a definitive voice.

"Ok... we'll go... thank you miss." Said James quietly, then the group left.

Remus woke several hours later, to the sound of curtains being violently opened.

"Really James, you could make an effort!" he heard, but could not see the source of the voice.

"Lily? James, is that you?" Four dark shapes appeared next to the bed.

"We're all here, mate. _Lumos._ " and he could suddenly see Sirius, James, Peter and Lily standing over him, smiling softly. Remus pulled the quilt up higher to try and conceal his most severe cuts.

"How are you feeling?" Asked Lily, who sat down next to the patient and started clearing the hair from his face.

"I'm fine," he assured them "just fell off my broom on the way back is all."

"Fell - Madam Pomfrey told us you tripped and landed in a ditch!" Exclaimed Sirius.

"Oh - um - yeah well I fell off my broom and tripped while I was trying to find it." he explained rapidly, cold sweats rushing over him. "Anyway, I'm fine, that's most important, right? You can go back to bed."

"Yeah, well we just wanted to see how you were doing ... OK, we'll let you sleep now...see you." Said James awkwardly.

Once they had left the room, Sirius burst out :

"What the hell, James! We were in there barely a minute!"

"Shut up, you'll wake the whole school up! He clearly didn't want us there... I think something fishy is going on."

"Why?" Asked Lily

"D'you see how he reacted when Sirius told him that Pomfrey's story wasn't the same as his?... I think he's lying to us... falling into a ditch doesn't make cuts like that."

"Why would he lie?"

"I don't know but I'm going to find out. I swear if anyone did this to him I'll hex them so hard their parents won't recognise them!"

They had reached the Griffindor commonroom and Lily left the boys to go back to her dorm. The boys said nothing as they undressed and got into bed.


	2. The Argument

The next morning, Remus joined the group for Potions, just before lunch. Without a word to the others, he sat beside Lily and started cutting up Gurdle root, avoiding all of his partner's questions, under Professor Slughorn's uneasy glare. James and Sirius, trying to get his attention, had started throwing ingredients at hi from across the room when Slughorn wasn't watching. Unfortunately, one of these missiles hit Lily on the back of the head, and they were forced to stop when she sent them a murderous glare.

At the end of the lesson, Remus left quickly without waiting for anyone, and the boys had to catch up with him once thye arrived at the Great Hall.

"What's up with you?" Asked Sirius, rather aggressively.

"Nothing, why?"

"You joking? Why've you been avoiding us?"

"I haven't!"

"Really? You wouldn't talk to us in Potions and you didn't wait for us after, either."

"Well I - I ... " Remus scrambled before exclaiming " You could have gotten yourselves into loads of trouble last night! Pomfrey sad I was fine!"

"No she said you were asleep and that you'd be fine today. She didn't mention how you were at the time though."

"Alright Sirius, lay off him." James intervened "We were just worried, Remus. You would have done the same if it was one of us. And anyway, I had my cloak, we were perfectly safe, not that we're scared of a few detentions, but Lily felt differently and I don't really feel like cleaning Filch's office again. What I'm more interested in is what you said happened."

"What about it?" Remus aid, his face almost buried in his bowl of soup.

"I don't believe it."

Remus almost choked on the spoonful of soup he was trying to swallow, under the surprised and worried eyes of half of Griffindor House.

"What d'you mean? Why?"

"Your story and Pomfrey's didn't add up."

"Well I explained that - "

"Yes but I don't believe it."

"And why would I lie?"

"That's what I'd like to know. You have no better friends than us, you know you can tell us anything. Was it because Lily was there? You didn't want her to know?"

Sirius and Peter's eyes flicked between the bickering friends. Then Remus stood up suddenly.

"I didn't lie! If you think I did then it's you who doesn't trust me, and if that's the case, then I've spent three years with the wrong person. I told you what happened and that's that. I'm going to the library." Then he left. The two spectators didn't dare say anything, and just continued slurping their soup loudly while James stared atat the doors his friend had just walked through, eyes full of sorrow.

That night in the Griffindor commonroom, James was sitting alone in front of the fire. In fact, everyone else was up in their dorms, asleep, but James couldn't. The sound of footsteps approaching, however, tore his eyes from the flickering flames. Lily was walking barefoot, in her nightgown, towards him. James noticed that she looked incredibly splendid, with her messy hair and sleepy eyes, and a familiar sting was felt in his chest. She sat in front of James and looked hesitantly at him.

"You OK?"

"Yeah... I had a fight with Remus. We'll get over it."

"Yeah I heard. Why did you say you didn't believe him? He thinks you don't trust him."

"I know. But what else was I supposed to say? I tell my friends the truth, whatever it is. Always."

"Well that's great but what if it's something he's ashamed of? He loves you, everyone knows that, and you have to trust that if he is lying, one day he'll tell you, but for now it's too hard... he might not even be lying!"

"Yeah... thanks Lily... I'm going to go up now." And at that they both said goodnight and went their separate ways. As James approached his bed, he turned suddenly. "Remus? You awake?"

"What?"

"I - I wanted to apologise." Remus slowly sat up in his bed and faced James, who continued "I - I'm still not sure I believe you, but I do trust you. And I trust that if you lied, then you have a good reason to. I just hope one day you'll confide in us, instead of facing it alone. There. Goodnight." James got into bed and faced the wall, sorrow and hope emanating from him.

"Thank you for understanding." He heard, and a broad smile appeared on his face.


	3. Fun and games

A week later, James was sitting in his bed reading one evening when Sirius, Peter and Remus came in. Seeing James holding the open book, Sirius let out a high pitched scream and slapped it out of his hands, causing amused grins to appear on his companions' faces.

"Oi!" Protested James, before being drawn into a massive hug

"Are you OK? Did it hurt you?" Sirius fretted, holding James' face his hands.

"No, let go of me you unfathomable idiot!" He joked

" NO! It's gotten to you! Why, James, _WHY_!?" He cried, looking distraught.

"Stop moaning you crazy person!"

"Where d'you get that book?"

"Lily gave it to me."

"Oh it was Lily, was it?" Peter and Remus went to sit on one of the beds and watched the comedic pair, grinning. "Look, I know she's hot but really James... a book!"

"She's not hot!" Squealed a red-faced James

"Oh well in that case I'll go and tell her yo think she's fat and ugly!"

" _NO!_ No, OK, OK! Jeez, it's just a book. Quite interesting in fact."

"Qu - Interesting?!" Sirius repeated, who then pretended to faint, thinking Peter was behind him and would catch him. Peter realised this too late and jumped forward to catch him, but they both ended up falling in a great heap, causing Remus and James to shed tears of laughter. Once everyone had stopped laughing, Remus asked :

"What's it about?"

"Magical creatures and monsters. And there's no dates or weird names, and the sentences aren't too long so it's easy toto stay concentr - " he was cut off by a loud snore as Sirius, once again, collapsed onto Peter. "Oh come off it, Black!"

"Seriously, I don't get what could be interesting about it."

"Well obviously, since you haven't read it. It says that in Transylvania, they actually _breed_ vampires. And in America they've put down every magical creature, even dragons and stuff, and there's tis bloke who's trying to find a cure for werewolves."

" ** _WHAT?"_** shrieked Remus, making everyone jump back.

"Uh, yeah there's a guy who wants to find a cure for werewolf bites... Damocles Belby or something... he's nowhere near close though, might not see a change for a few year's time. Here have a look."

James handed the book to Remus, who read avidly the few paragraphs on the subject. No-one asked him why he reacted in such a manner, but they all noticed his change in mood for the rest of the evening.


	4. Near death experience

A few days before the full moon, James was lying in bed, wide awake while everyone else was asleep. He wouldn't admit it t the others but Remus' lie had never left his mind; and so he lay awake, as he had been for the last month, thinking about why his friend would lie to him. It occurred to him that the manner of how Remus had been injured might not be the only lie. Maybe he was also lying about where he was going. After all, his mother had supposedly been sick since they arrived at Hogwarts three years ago, yet not once had Remus mentioned St. Mungo's, and surely, a long-term illness could only be treated there?

As the sun came up, his friends started stirring and James hoped he could maybe get an hour's sleep before having to go to his thursday classes. But still he could not turn his brain off, and soon they were late for breakfast, without James having slept at all.

During Charms, the first lesson of the day, it occurred to James that every time Remus came back from a trip, he was spotted with Madam Pomfrey. This would be understandable if his mother was really sick, but now that he had doubts...

These thoughts kept James awake for another few hours, but to the amusement of Sirius and Peter, he fell asleep during History of magic, after which Remus was summoned to Professor Mcgonagall's office. He only rejoined his classes halfway through Potions, attracting curious glances from his friends.

"I'm going to see my mother this weekend." He explained quickly before catching up on the lesson with Lily.

On Saturday, early in the evening, Remus prepared a small bag with everything he'd need, under James' secretly stern eye, before waiting in the commonroom for Madam Promfrey to come and get get him. When she finally arrived, Remus rapidly said goodbye, then followed the Healer out.

As soon as the picture closed, James sprinted to his dorm and grabbed the invisibility cloak he had hidden earlier. In a matter of seconds he had returned downstairs, where a confused Peter and Sirius waited.

"I'm going to follow him." He announced

"You can't follow him, he's your friend!" Peter gasped.

"Fine, stay here. Sirius?"

Sirius hesitated for a second before agreeing, then rushed to get under the cloak. They sped out of the room and down the corridor as quietly as they could, occasionally tripping over each other's feet, until finally, Remus and Madam Pomfrey came into sight. The nurse was guiding Remus through thea corridors, holding him by the shoulders. The twisted and turned and finally emerged from the school when Remus suddenly cried out and fell to the ground. Madam Pomfrey tugged at him until he rose, slightly trembling, and they ran, straight towards the Whomping Willow.

The hidden boys watched as she drew her wand and a small branch that laid on the floor rose and struck a gnarled root, and the battering branches of the tree stopped. Remus ran towards it's base and disappeared into a hole between the roots.

"Good luck!" His guide called after him, before turning back and walking straight past the two boys.

"What the hell?" Muttered Sirius, astonished.

"I don't know. Come on." And the boys approached the deadly tree, whose branches were moving once again.

" _Wingardium Leviosa!_ "

The stick levitated and stuck the root, creating safe passage for the boys, who entered the tunnel underneath. Creating light from their wands, they trod slowly, careful not to trip. Suddenly, a scream filled the tunnel and made Sirius drop his wand, which he retrieved quickly.

"What the hell was that?" He asked, shaking

"I don't know... it wasn't Remus though, that's good... right?"

"Uh... James didn't that sound like the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade?"

James didn't answer. They agrees that wherever the tunnel lead, whatever was on the other end, that was where Remus was, and the might need their help. Wands at the ready, they proceeded. Before long, the reached a room made of old grey wood, hardly furnished at all.

"Let's take the cloak off... if it comes to a fight, we'll be better off without it."

Sirius nodded, eyes wide and wand shaking in his hand.

"R - Remus?" He called quietly.

Suddenly, the wall exploded and a giant grey dog came skidding into the room. The boys froze at the sight of the beast, barely noticing the deep fresh cus on it's side and the blood dripping around it's paws.

"James that's a - "

"I know."

The werewolf sprang, it's jaws wide and it's claws gleaming, but the young wizards were faster.

" _Stupefy!_ "

" _Impedimenta!_ " They cried, sending the beast flying the other way, straight through another wall. The boys turned and fled as soon as their curses hit the creature, and were already back in the tunnel by the time it had gotten back up and shaken itself off. The ran as fast as they could, looking back frequently until finally the, night sky was visible. They only stopped, however, when the Whomping Willow swung a huge branch at James' head. He managed to duck in time, but a smaller branch came up behind him and tripped him. Sirius managed to drag James away from the murderous plant, and they kept running, only stopping once they reached their peaceful dorm.

Catching their breaths, they sat silently on their beds for a moment, before heading downstairs to discuss what they had just witnessed. There was no way they could sleep after such an overload of adrenaline.


	5. Boggarts and friendship

Remus came back from the hospital the next day sweating more than he ever had in his life. He remembered perfectly how he had attacked James and Sirius the night before, how much he wanted to rip them to shreds, just for the fun of it. He remembered the pain when they had sent him flying through the wall, but also the slight relief the human inside him had felt when they escaped, and the will it had taken not to pursue them. He hadn't told Madam Pomfrey about their close escape, afraid he would get into trouble and that James' cloak would be confiscated. He would have to confront them later, explain and apologize, and hope to god they didn't tell anyone. Obviously, they would never approach him again, and Remus' heart ached as he remembered the two odd years of pure joy and laughs, of having friends. But he accepted that he was a monster, and that he would never have real friends who would know his secret yet accept him. He knew that once he had left Dumbledore's protection he would live a hard and painful life. Might as well get a head start.

He walked into the classroom and was surprised to see that all the tables had vanished, and all the students were in a line, bent over over laughing. He turned to Professor Lance, the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, who was also grinning widely.

"Ah! Mr Lupin! Come in, come in! We're studying Boggarts today. James, explain what Boggarts are while Sirius takes a snap at it." He said with glee

Remus approached James shyly, and his old friend simply did as he was told, no more, no less :

"Boggarts are shapeshifters that take the form of your biggest fear. Laughter kills them, so you have to turn them into something funny with the spell _Riddikulus,_ got it?"

Remus nodded, surprised though not sure why. Soon, everyone except him had stepped up to laugh at their fears, and the professor looked at him uncertainly.

"Um... are you sure...?" He asked, making Remus blush as the whole class listened. Of course he was afraid that his secret would come out there and then, but determined, he nodded and stepped in front of the huge cupboard. The door creaked as it opened slowly and to everyone's surprise, Sirius toppled out, battered and bloody, and fell to the floor, dead. There were gasps in the room as they stared at Boggart Sirius' corpse and back to the real Sirius. Remus had done this. He had killed his friend, he knew it, as the scratches and bites on his body were those of a werewolf. Remus lifted his wand and tried to imagine something funny, like Sirius' body sitting up, yelling "BOO!" and laughing, as he did so often.

" _R -_ _Riddikulus_!" He stuttered " _Riddiklus! Ri - di - ku - lus!_ " tears started to stream down his face and the Boggart became James, then Peter, then Lily.

Professor Lance stepped I front and the Boggart became a giant spider. "Riddikulus _!_ " The spider spoke and everyone laughed as the voice of a toddler came out and announced she would eat them, before disappearing. The class was dissmissed and before long they all forgot about Remus' Boggart.

* * *

That evening, Remus walked into the dorm and found James and Sirius practicing spells.

"Hi Remus" they called politely.

"Where's Peter?"

"Shower."

"We need to talk." Remus announced. James and Sirius sat on the nearest bed and looked expectantly at him. "I'm sorry I lied. And I'm sorry about last night. I didn't tell you because I didn't want to lose you, I know what I am, I know I'm dangerous... Have you told anyone?"

The two boys seemed shocked at the suggestion. "Of course not, why would we?"

"Because I'm a monster!"

"Yes you are." Remus lowered his head and prepared for a batch of insults. "The way we see it, one night a month you turn into a blood craving beast, but the rest of the time you're just good old Remus. And as long as you're well imprisoned when you change, that's fine by us."

Remus snapped his head back up and stared with incredulity at the grinning boys. "It is?"

"Yep." Sirius smiled "You're going to have to tell Peter though."

Remus had started crying. He launched himself across the room and hugged his friends tightly, making them laugh.

"There's just one problem though." Said James, now serious. "I swore I'd hex the person that sent you to the hospital wing last month, but I can hardly do that now can I, seen as it's you."

They all howled with laughter, and once Peter had returned from the shower, they explained the situation to him, and after a little bit of persuading, he was as accepting of Remus as Sirius and James were.


	6. Animagi

As the months passed, James, Sirius and Peter became more and more worried about Remus. Sure, he was happier than they had ever seen him since they had accepted him as a werewolf, but every month they would meet him at the hospital wing, deep cuts along his chest and sides. Of course, Madam Pomfrey always managed to heal him, but the trio couldn't bare seeing their friend in so much pain. Remus refused to say anything about his transformations, except that he mutilated himself to let out all the beastly rage that couldn't be contained, so they had to find as much information as thy could in the library, much to the annoyance of Sirius and the amusement of Peter.

After much useless research, they discovered that the transformation into a wolf is extremely painful, as all of the bones in the body must break and reorganize themselves and the fur grew at an accelerated rate, as did the teeth and claws.

The boys were horrified by the article and immediately split up : one would research a way to calm the pain, another would continue the research they were already doing, and the other would ask teachers and specialists for advice, as well as send letters to Damocles Belby, who was working on a cure for lycanthropy, explaining the situation and asking for help. They did all of this, of course, either at night, aided by James' cloak, or during the full moon, so that Remus would remain oblivious to their efforts until they had actually fond something.

During their research, the discovered that wolves were only aggressive and dangerous to humans, having no quarrel with other animals, for example.

It was midway through March that they discovered their first clue to helping Remus, in Transfiguration.

"For the past two years and a half, you have learned to change objects into other objects, and animals into objects. We will now be proceeding to change objects into animals, magic that is more difficult than anything you have done so far. Within a year or so's time, you will have learned to temporarily change people into animals. To turn yourself into an animal permanently, or rather at your will, is another level completely." Professor Mcgonagall said. "Someone able to become a certain animal at their will, like myself, is called an Animagus."

At this, James sat straight and lifted his arm so fast that Sirius was sure it would fly off.

"Miss, how does one become an Animagus?" He asked.

"It is a long process, Mr Potter, one that many wizards and witches give up on, as it is so hard. But today we'll not talk about Animagi, that is a lesson for later."

As she continued her lesson, James returned to his slouching position, but the sparkle in his eyes remained, and Sirius knew he had an idea.

* * *

That night, once Remus was asleep, his three roommates snuck downstairs to the commonroom.

"I have it!" Announced James excitedly.

"What? You know how to help Remus?" Squeaked Peter.

"Yes! Remember that book said he was only a danger to humans? What if we all become Animagi?" He exclaimed.

"Are you mad?" Sirius responded, though the idea seemed quite appealing. "Mcgonagall said it was long and hard, this is quite an urgent matter, in case you hadn't noticed."

"I know but nothing else will work, I've tried every possible trick and this is the only one that has a slight chance of working! Plus, imagine it really, you'd be able to do whatever you wanted!"

"Actually Animagi have to register themselves with the ministry, in case they use their abilities for crime." Peeped Peter.

"Doesn't matter, it'd still be amazing right? And we could keep and eye on Remus while he's a full fledged beast."

After hesitating, Sirius grinned enthusiastically, and Peter followed. They spent the night planning the amount of research they'd have to do to find out how to pull off such a feat, and discussed what they'd do once they had, because none of them doubted that they would.

 **The End.**

 **Coming soon : The Marauders, the tale of how they became Animagi and created the Marauders' map.**


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